The service call center has become an important aspect of the purchase and use of goods and services. In a typical setting, a provider of a service, for example, telephone services, cable television services, data services, and the like, operates or utilizes one or more call centers to receive and process calls from customers/subscribers regarding service offerings and/or service problems/needs. Similarly, a provider of a particular good, for example, computers, may operate or utilize one or more call centers to allow customers to receive help with purchased items/systems. In many such cases, a provider of goods or services may operate an internal call center for handling service calls, but the provider may contract with a third party call center to handle some or all of the service calls based on call volume and needs. For example, a provider of telecommunications services may handle a number of service calls via an internal call center, but the service provider may contract with a third party call center to handle a number of service calls, for example, 500 service calls per day, in order to relieve the service provider from the necessity of hiring additional internal call center staff or from investing in additional internal call center systems. In such arrangements, a substantial penalty may be assessed to the service provider for calls routed to the third party call center in excess of the contracted volume (e.g., 500 calls). Similarly, when a service provider fails to maximize calls routed to the third party call center (i.e., less than the contracted volume), then the service provider fails to maximize utilization of the contracted call volume, and thus, spends more on the third party call center contract than is necessary.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.